The term “standardized testing” is enough to strike fear into the hearts of most school kids. This process can often mean whether they pass a grade or remain behind their classmates during the next year. For homeschoolers, though, standardized testing can create other concerns, especially because so many of us have students who are workingKeep Reading…

It’s the start of a new homeschooling year and, for many of us, that brings a ton of excitement about our new books, our new curriculum, and the kids’ new grade levels. But we’ve been at this homeschooling thing for nearly ten years now and I’m here to tell you that the excitement… is goingKeep Reading…

We’ve always been rather creative in the ways we homeschool. While the idea of schooling at home might conjure up images of hitting the books from 8 to 2 Monday through Friday, we’ve never done it that way. Frankly, that doesn’t work for most homeschoolers. Instead, we structure our lessons to get done in aKeep Reading…

If you’ve been around the homeschooling world for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve heard of families who homeschool year round. In fact, we’re one of those families, so if you haven’t met someone before, you have now! Choosing whether to homeschool year round can be a tough decision to make. Which is whyKeep Reading…

Back-to-school is an exciting time of year, especially when you homeschool! With new ideas and a fresh start, there is a lot to celebrate. Homeschool parents usually ooze excitement and you want your kids to get excited about the beginning of the homeschool year also. Here are 25 fun first day of homeschool ideas toKeep Reading…

I just love homeschool planning season. Many homeschoolers start planning for the new school year during late spring and early summer. In our family, though, homeschool planning season is practically a year-round event. Even after almost ten years of homeschooling, I’m always looking for new homeschool planning tips that will help us along our journey. AfterKeep Reading…

Have you ever seen those homeschool moms who just seem to have it together? I mean, they have their lessons for the year arranged in advance, their kids’ extra-curricular activities are all planned out, and they keep monthly attendance religiously. Yeah, I’m not one of those moms. But, after many false starts, I’ve finally started toKeep Reading…

It’s common to start a new homeschool year in August or September, which is the same time of year when public schoolers go back to class. But I still like to reset my homeschool every January. By that point, I’m almost halfway through the school year and I can take a look at which resourcesKeep Reading…

Over the years, I’ve been rather cheap about homeschooling equipment. I’ll go crazy buying books, pens, and curriculum, but I was really hesitant to buy bulkier items for some reason. Probably because we have a small house and I didn’t want to overwhelm it with large items I wouldn’t use very often. But, even thoughKeep Reading…

We’ve been homeschooling for nine years now. And, since I’m a planning junkie, I have tried literally scores of different homeschool schedules. In a way that’s been a good thing. Since we’re teaching kids with ADHD at home, being flexible has been one of the keys to our homeschool success. But all kids, and kidsKeep Reading…

Our two oldest children are trying a brand new method of home education this year: K12. And adjusting to it has been…an interesting experience. After years of relaxed homeschooling, shifting into a full school day based around live classes, offline assignments, and readings was a complete course change. We’ve have seriously bumpy days, days thatKeep Reading…

We’re a family of six. We live in a 1600-square foot house (and that’s including the garage). One of the major issues that homeschooling families face is finding the space to store their school supplies and we’re no strangers to that problem. As much as I would like to have a dedicated school room, weKeep Reading…

I’ve been known to overschedule my homeschool lesson plans just a tad. Okay, maybe more than a tad. More like a WHOLE LOT. Like so many homeschooling parents, I start the planning season with a huge amount of enthusiasm and excitement. We’ll study all the great civilizations of history! We’ll read every classic children’s bookKeep Reading…

Now that we’ve been homeschooling for nine years, I think I’ve heard just about every objection to homeschooling possible. But it always interests me to hear from people who would like to homeschool, but feel that they can’t. I’ve heard all of these: “I want to homeschool, but I’m too busy!” “I want to homeschool, butKeep Reading…

We’ve all been there. It’s the start of a brand new homeschool year and we start to experience a mixture of excitement…and dread. I have always loved homeschooling my children, but as they’ve gotten older (and my responsibilities have increased), planning just isn’t as much fun as it used to be. When I first startedKeep Reading…

We made the decision to homeschool before our first child was even born. (Since I’m a homeschooling graduate, it was a kind of a no-brainer.) But I told myself that this homeschool was going to be the very best homeschool that ever homeschooled. I was going to teach my children everything they could possibly know. AndKeep Reading…

We’ve been homeschooling for nine years now. (Wow. It’s been nine years.) And in that time, I’ve heard no end of variations on the “I Want to Homeschool, But…” theme. “I want to homeschool, but I’m too broke.” “I want to homeschool, but I need to work.” “I want to homeschool, but I’m not aKeep Reading…

It’s back to school time! And this year, I have a rising middle schooler. Eeek! In keeping with my decision not to use a homeschool planner this year, I’m putting the organizing squarely on my sixth-grader’s shoulders. So that means it’s time to shop for gorgeous middle school student organizers that are lovely enough for tweensKeep Reading…

Okay. If you’re shaking your head at the title of this post, stay with me! 🙂 When I first started homeschooling eight years ago, the number one thing I would have said homeschooling moms needed was: a complete homeschool planner. I had the most fun choosing a planner, organizing it, and filling it out eachKeep Reading…

Having a house full of children to homeschool can be exciting, fun, and…well, a little bit stressful. After all, we’re accepting the responsibility for educating our kids (even if they’re living with special needs) ourselves. It can be lonely and challenging, and I know this from experience. But a huge incentive of adopting minimalism is reducingKeep Reading…

One of the major reasons we decided not to stick with public schooling was the super-packed daily schedule our family had to endure. Between getting up early for classes, staying in school most of the day, completing hours of homework, and getting to bed early – we were frazzled. Surprisingly, though, it’s easy to fallKeep Reading…